Welcome To My Nightmare

Aly bit her lip. She had been both confused and trying to lighten the mood. Now she felt like a first year academy student who had been trying to impress the teacher and came to the wrong conclusion. So she did the only thing she could do--sit back and wait for something she could do.

A lump formed in her throat as she drew her knees up. She was an adult--an adult with a career--and here she was, curled up on the couch like a child needing a good cry. She swallowed it though, sat back, and waited in silence.

Aw, hell. Lily wasn't great with people, but she recognized the look on Aly's face as one that she herself wore quite often.

Lily chewed her lip, trying to think of what to say. "Hey, for someone who doesn't know her way around the supernatural side of things without GPS, you're doing well. If all I knew about djinn or genies was what I'd learned from 'Aladdin' and 'I Dream of Genie'... the fact that you wanted to make sure Rome was happy before we did anything speaks well of you."

She fidgeted from foot to foot. "Wanna borrow some of my books, when we have spare time? We can get you caught up on this kind of life quickly, I'm sure. You seem bright."

I seem bright?! I'm one of the FBI's best profilers! I have hunted the nation's worst criminals, found the lost children, dealt with evil you can't possibly imagine and I don't care if vampires, werewolves, and the boogy man are real. I have seen the depravity in the dark of their eyes as they gloat about how the child enticed them, how they were born to do it, how their little bones crumbled with the force of their grasp. I've also found that one clue that returns a loved one from Hell. I seem bright--how old is she anyway?

"Maybe later--but thanks. Guess I have a lot to learn."

Aly silenced her brooding and returned to her waiting. She considered letting the hunters leave without her. She was a crack shot--but that didn't matter anymore. Nothing she was or could do mattered.

She sighed, feeling like one of her missing persons--only no clue could rescue her.

Lenna didn’t look at Aly while she mumbled. “Sorry, I... I didn’t mean... I was just trying to explain what a djinn is, and... I am sorry.”

Georgie had left without a word and weirdly enough no one stopped her or asked where she went. The blond girl had a confidence appearance and even when she didn’t said a lot she still knew what she was doing and it seemed that no one questioned her. It didn’t take long for her to come back; she had a brown paper bag in her hand.

“What the hell did you bought now?” Lenna didn’t sound at all patient.

Georgie didn’t answer she just lifted a jar full of a pretty dark red liquid out of the bag, which must be lamb blood. The blond girl looked disgusted by it, but also a little proud.

Lenna had packed her books and everything, stood up and went to the door it looked as if she didn’t bother if the others would come with her, when she hesitated before opening the door.

“I don’t know what you are planning to do tonight but I am going to rescue a retarded friend of mine. He deserves that I punch him for losing his phone and being again in danger.”

I can’t believe he tells me that he never can leave me alone because I always get myself into trouble. I am the one who saves him from dying lately, while I just injure myself with minor injuries.

“Are you coming guys or do you need first a written invitation? I would say we leave your car here Barbie, the pink is a bit flashy.”

Lenna didn’t wait for the other five to respond and went outside to her Mustang; she greeted the black beauty with a warm smile. Lenna didn’t need to turn around to know that the rest of the team was outside. Caleb climbed into his truck and with him Aly and Lily, which left her to drive with Danila and Georgie. Lenna followed Caleb’s truck, since he had the GPS location of Rome’s girl on his mobile. In the Mustang wasn’t any music blaring as it usual would, you could just here the engine and Lenna’s impatient drumming on the steering wheel.

First of all don’t you dare Rome and be in a happy Playboy world that is something I so don’t wanna see. And second don’t you dare to be dead!

The cars stopped and everyone covered their silver blades in the blood from Georgie’s jar.

“Are you sure it is here?” Lenna didn’t meant to insult anyone she just didn’t want to waste her time with searching a warehouse for Rome when he wasn’t here.

Danila silently grabbed a few of his weapons, putting a long, thin sword (seriously, this whole Hunter deal had it's occasional perks - what other professional assassins would have ever needed a sword for more than show?)in a scabbard on his belt and carrying the usual compliment of two pistols and a rifle in their respective holsters and sling.

He grabbed two more small, indiscernible things from his bag before following Elenna and Georgie to Lenna's car, sliding into the back seat silently. As they drove he put one hand forward, placing it on Lenna's shoulder. "We weel zave Rome, Elenna," he said with a slight fatherly smile, then leaned back on the seat for the rest of the drive.

As everyone wetted their blades, Danila took a small air-tight bag and a sponge form his pocket, soaking the sponge in lamb's blood before placing it in the bag and closing it, sliding it into an inside pocket of his trench coat - this way he could wet the blade when he needed it, but not be stuck with blood dripping from it as they entered. Floors slippery with wet blood were never very fun. He slung the rifle from his shoulder and held it ready for the invasion of the building.

"We're as zure as we can be," he said to Lenna, before turning to everyone else. "Zo, do we have a plan, or are we juzt rushing in with guns blazing?"

Caleb ran his own sponge carefully along the blade of his Chinese broadsword, keeping the weapon in hand. He bagged the sponge and pocketed it as Danila had, keeping it ready to smear blood on his kukris, which were both relegated to backup roles for now. He checked they were secure in their positive-locking sheathes on his belt and flourished the heavy broadsword in his hand. He sighed and looked at the tip, quite useless for thrusting. But then, he'd hunted a Shapeshifter with this before and caught its heart by hitting its back so hard he opened its chest. He imagined he could do something similar to this Djinn if given a similar opening.

"Danila, Lily, you're with me. We'll look for the Djinn and try to keep it occupied. Georgina, Elenna, Alyson, you three try to find Rome. Do not split up. Keep in contact," Caleb stated, tossing a walkie talkie to Elenna and waving another one himself, "I mean it - stay together. I'll tether anyone who tries to break off to their group next time we hunt. Now let's rock and or roll."

So she grabbed the two she was most likely to use- one from her hip, and one from a sheathe on her forearm- and used the sponge she'd been tossed to put the blood on the blades. She'd make sure to clean them before re-sheathing them- she was not going to render her special-ordered arm sheathe unusable.

She tried a small smile at... Danilla, was his name? There was something about him that put her on edge, though- the way he held himself, something in his eyes, she wasn't sure what- so the smile didn't get very large.

She trusted Caleb, though, and was more than okay with sticking with him.

Granted, if she'd had her d'ruthers on who to go in with, she would have chosen Lenna and Caleb. She liked the other girl.

Lily did a few little stretches, wanting to loosen up her muscles. She wasn't much of a fighter, but she was dependable. "Locked, cocked, and ready to rock."

Allison thought about coating her silver bullets with blood and then chastised herself for accepting their crazy ideas. The firing of the bullet would vaporize the blood before it left the chamber and it would be hell to clean afterward. Not that she cared about cleaning it--it was more the possibility of it backfiring into her hand that made her wary. It wasn't her gun. Her gun was locked up under her bed at Tex's and the only key was in a safe deposit box under an assumed name. It wouldn't do for federal bullets to show up at a crime scene. In the end she just shook her head and loaded Rawson's gun with the dummy rounds. Hopefully plain silver would at least hurt the whatever it was.

She'd almost stayed behind. Hunting the supernatural was their forte, not hers, and it was painfully obvious. It probably helped to believe in the things they hunted which she was not willing or able to do. So she stood there waiting for them to tell her to guard the car like a rookie beat cop. Not for the first time she found her mind mocking her surroundings.

Werewolves and genies...please.

Then Caleb gave her a real job--sure, not her alone, but it beat the hell out of sticking smelly pins in an imaginary cushion and it was right up her alley. Finding missing persons was natural and normal. More importantly it was something she excelled at.

"Alright, you heard the man. Stay behind me and low to the ground, Georgie--lose the stilettos."

She turned back to Caleb when she felt a heavy hand on her shoulder. In his other hand he held a sheathed silver dagger and a sponge. She could tell from the hint of crimson at the edge of the sheathe that it had been pre-wet with the animal blood.

She smiled and took the knife. "Thanks. I'll keep them safe."

The teams split off. Aly followed basic entry procedure, sliding along the wall, gun out but not raised, safety off. The two girls followed her with their knives out.

"It's okay--we'll get him back alive. You ready?"

The blonde seemed the most eager, nodding her head while Lenna looked worried.

Allison didn't give them time to fret about their friend. She sized up the door and kicked it in with a thunderous boom. Hopefully the Djinn was further inside. Either way it didn't matter as the second team did the same thing on the opposite side of the warehouse.

Once inside she kept to the shadows, glancing back to make sure her team was with her before going any further.

Lenna couldn’t hide her grin when she saw Georgie’s disappointed face after Aly told her to get rid of her shoes.

Why the hell does she wear high heels?

Lenna winced when the doors were kicked in on both sides of the warehouse. Normally a quieter entering was better, but too late. Lenna took a last deep breath and followed Aly. She didn’t have a good feeling about this. It didn’t really matter who goes in first, but it was mean to let the still injured and new hunter go in first.

“Hey Aly, let me go first.”

Aly turned just for a second and she didn’t even have to say a word. Her eyes said enough. Why would I let a 19 year old kid go in front of me?

"No."

“Fine, but then let me do something to help. And just that you know I am not always that helpless as I was while we fought against the skin walker.”

"I know you're good in a fight, Lenna, but we need that brilliant brain I'm tact. Let me help you so when you're needed most, you can shine. Let me do what I've worked my whole life doing."

Lenna smiled at Aly just before she raised her left hand just a little and mumbled. “Feuer das uns umgibt ich rufe dich, bring Licht in diese Dunkelheit ohne uns zu offenbaren.“

Lenna breathing became calm and a small fire ball appeared and flew several feet away from the three girls, the fire did lighten the room but it didn’t seem to lighten the little group. It was a good trick not to give their position away, but Lenna didn’t had enough power to keep the fire burning for long. It just lasted a few seconds before it flickered and went out. Lenna staggered for a moment and stammered with a shy smile. “Maybe that wasn’t my brightest idea today.”

((OOC: Fire that surrounds us I summon you, bring light into this darkness without revealing us.))

((We'll just pretend that I wasn't gone for several days...had a few long days here. Better now. Sorry for the AWOL posts =\))

With an almost giddy sigh, Adara pushed the door open. Her eyes glowed brightly, her dark hair was now wild and curly again and dark tattoos swirled all over her skin. She wore a long, loose, bright green dress that tied over one shoulder, and it swished around her feet as she padded softly across the floor to The Prey's unconscious figure.

And irritated noise escaped her as she poked him with her bare foot. He could have at least had the decency to pass out on the bed. No matter though. Adara settled onto the floor next to The Prey with her back against the bed. The light in her eyes intensified, and her hand shimmered with a sort of blue electricity as she set it gently on his forehead. Images, memories, faces, names...his entire life flashed and sparked before her as his unconscious mind gave itself up to her.

Well, well Rome. What an interesting life you've lead.

~~~~~~~~~~~

A boat drifts in the middle of the open sea. It's raining hard. Water is pooling in the bottom of the boat. A large green body brushes against the side of the boat with a growl and sends it rocking dangerously. Nessie is hungry tonight.

((I am so sorry if this is a horrible start. Hungry family demands dinner. I can edit or add more later if you want. Just let me know. Also...I have no idea where a door will enter into this. You have my apologies.))

He was dreaming. He had to be. How the hell else did he get in the middle of the ocean like this?

Rather, why the hell was he in the middle of the ocean like this? Getting Romulus Remington to get into the water more than waist-deep at the beach was a feat usually only Rawson's pointed teasing could accomplish. Getting him into a boat was like getting BA Barracus into a plane. This didn't happen in real life. It just didn't.

Dreaming, dreaming, Rome thought to himself, lying flat in the middle of the boat, which was rocking harder than a metal concert. Just wait til you wake up.

Great. Freaking terrific. The only thing more terrifying than the open ocean: the things that live in the open ocean. Rome screwed his eyes tightly shut.

"Something just went past my leg!"

"It's your imagination, kid."

"Look! Did you see that?"

"What?"

Rome sat up. So the Star Wars audio track was playing in his dream? He'd recognize that distinctive wookiee growl anywhere. Rome opened his eyes.

And he wasn't in the ocean anymore. Which was fantastic, except that he was dressed in a Stormtrooper uniform and was standing knee-deep in what looked suspiciously like an Imperial trash compactor. Rawson was in his dream, dressed like Han Solo dressed like a Stormtrooper, and even Lennie was there, wearing a white dress and her hair done up in Cinnamon Buns on the sides of her head, just like Princess Leia.

What the hell? Like, seriously. What the hell?

And Rome knew exactly what happened next, so it was a shock but not truly a surprise when a powerful force locked around his ankle and pulled him under.

Under the ocean.

With the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea squid, the Loch Ness Monster, Jaws, and Flounder, apparently.

Rome began thrashing. He was a good swimmer. He liked the water. He liked swimming pools and bathtubs, rain, rivers, and even moderate lakes were okay. Holes with limitless bottoms and hungry sea monsters freaked him the frack out. Whatever. Some people had a fear of flying. So when he began thrashing that meant that he forgot that he ever liked the water, and forgot that he ever knew how to swim. His heart was beating in his throat like it was trying to escape, like a runaway set of clacking teeth.

He was fighting and thrashing, and tentacles and sharp jaws were grappling him, and he realized he couldn't actually breathe so maybe this wasn't a dream after all and maybe he was having a vision and--

Danila nodded to Caleb, moving to stand beside the other man and waiting for their next move. Lily flashed him a small smile - something about her eyes when she did so seemed to suggest a certain uneasiness - and he returned the look with a slight, comforting smile. He then turned back to the job at hand.

In a few moments both doors on this side of the warehouse had been kicked in and the teams proceeded inwards. . .

"No, I don't mean it that way. I mean, it is weird that you can do that...magic stuff, but it's a positive, rather impressive weirdness." Georgina smiled briefly, then turned her head to Aly who looked very focused. "I feel pretty naked."

"Excuse me?"

"Without my shoes."

"Next time just get some Walmart shoes without heels", Elenna replied.

"Walmart shoes? Is that some kind of ridiculous joke?"

"Hey girls!" Aly raised her hand. "I just want to remind you that we're not here to have conversations about fashion." The two girls nodded quickly. Aly was right. There was something more important than shoes right now...well, for the moment at least. After all, shoes did play a rather important role in Georgina's life, but for now she had to focus on a bigger problem than running around without her fabulous Pradas.

Darkness and silence surround you. You stand in silence for how long? Nothing can be seen. Not even your own hands. You can feel them move, and you can feel the tactile sensation of your clothing, but you cannot see them. Does that mean that they only exist as a part of your mind? And if they only exist in your mind, does that mean you only exist in someone else's mind?

Before you have time to explore these thoughts, the lights turn on. Or more accurately, the sun turns on.

You're standing alone in the desert. Or at least as alone as you can be when you're surrounded by hundreds of faceless, plastic mannequins.

"Part of being sneaky is being quiet." She hissed a little meaner than she intended. The girls quieted down but not into silence. She took what she could get and led them further into the warehouse.

Not far inside the environment started to change. The boxes were covered with rich fabrics. At the center of all the finery was a divan. Tapestries and silks hung from the ceiling and the floor changed from concrete to a thick Persian rug. Aly called a halt, aiming her gun at the occupant of the bed. Rome lay asleep, horror contorted his face.

Her finger moved over the trigger but the feeling in her gut told her this was too easy. She still held the woman in her sights, but motioned for the others to wait--at least until the team who was supposed to deal with the Djinn arrived.

Romulus felt he should somehow be okay with not being in control, seeing as how it happened to him all the freaking time these days. And it was in his own head that he consistently had the least control. Like it had a mind of its own.

Not funny.

But it still bugged him that he wasn't even a driving force in his own dreams. Or he was, but it was like all his fears and phobias (which had sort of rose steadily over the past two years of his life) were the ones in control, conspiring against him to create all manner of pants-wetting, heart-stopping, and grossly inappropriately terrifying situations.

So not fair.

Now he was in the desert. Alone. Absolutely alone. Which sucked enough on its own. But he wasn't entirely alone, either. Faceless, plastic mannequins were his only companions, apparently for miles. It was hot. Really hot. Like, he could smell melting plastic kind of hot. And these weren't even chick mannequins, which might have helped matters: but no, he was surrounded by a bunch of naked, anatomically incorrect dude mannequins.

"Put some pants on," Rome chided, and shoved a mannequin over. It hit the ground face first and its head rolled off. This made him feel slightly better. But only slightly.

A bird screeched above him, and he looked up, hoping the wheeling black shape would at least be something else alive in this wasteland, but he saw nothing. It was like he was on a movie set, and they were going to CG the bird in later.

Rome began walking slowly through the forest of mannequins. He hadn't taken more than five steps, however, before he discovered a mannequin lying on its face, with a missing head. Rome's eyes darted back to where he had left the pushed-over mannequin. It was now standing upright again. Or he was turned around, and this was that original mannequin. One arm splayed up, the other down, head rolled off to the left, looking up at him, faceless.

So Rome picked a direction and walked another ten steps, quicker this time. Where, of course, lay another mannequin, head to the left of the body, face-up, one arm raised.

Rome blinked hard, rubbing his eyes. When he opened them again, all of the mannequins had been knocked over, all in the exact same way, until he was in a field of broken, headless, faceless mannequins: like a battlefield.

Then instead of a bird screech, a mortar blast sounded overhead.

Rome instinctively hit the deck as a shell exploded somewhere nearby, throwing bits of plastic limbs and desert sand over him. Rome covered his head as the screeching and exploding intensified, crescendoed, and then fell silent. The battery was over as quickly as it had begun. Before Rome even opened his eyes, he felt something sticky on his hands. Blood? Had he been injured? He didn't feel any pain. Rome opened his eyes and looked around him.

Adara's bright blue eyes snapped open as the door swung open. Three women entered, their auras heavily laced with anxiety. The apparent leader of the group aimed a gun at her nervously. Adara raised an eyebrow irritatedly before rising slowly from her position on the floor. She stepped over Rome's unconscious body and moved casually across the room to a small electric tea pot. The barrel of the gun followed her.

"You do know shooting me will not help you any." She said as she turned on the pot.

"It will if the bullets are silver coated in lambs blood." The strange woman said tensely.

That gave Adara pause, but only momentarily before she waved away the thought and began fixing a cup of tea.

"That is no matter. You may kill me if it pleases you, but Rome will die with me. Tea?" Adara said as she turned gracefully and fixed her eyes on the small group.

No, no, no not true or maybe. Damn what did it say in the books. Why the hell does no one ever write a book about hunting creatures? Gosh does hunter need to make the life of each other always that complicated. Okay note to myself when I ever retire from hunting I will start a network a database so that hunter can use it as resource and know how to kill this evilsonsofbitches. What the hell am I thinking? Focus, rescue Rome!

It was not easy for Lenna not to run to Rome and check if he was alright she even lowered the knife, the only thing that did actually stop her was Georgie. The other girl was had taken her hand and shook slightly her head.

“Du kannst dir deinen Tee sonst wohin stecken.“ Lenna didn’t care that the djinn probably didn’t understand her; she needed to let some air out before she would do something stupid. “You are bluffing. There are more of us, we are not alone you can’t get out of here alive. We all know how to kill you and trust me b*tch you will die. I make sure you do.”

Lenna often appears younger and insecure, but right now she looked with fierce eyes at the djinn. Her hand was slightly twitching and her mind already formed a new spell to let her fire free. But something was holding her back, something let her be scared of using her powers right now. She never had used them when she was that angry.

Rome looked down at his arm. It was bloody already, sure, but now this was his blood. Where the hell had that come from? What was going on? Seriously, what the hell? Rome was sick and tired of being confused.

And scared.

At a certain point, being angry and confused didn't matter. That point was when the fear took over. Rome recognized the signs, the symptoms. He was a man unfortunately well acquainted with fear, thanks to a certain asshole whose name began with an A and ended in -ndre. His heart was pounding in his chest and his breathing came in short, dry gasps.

He knew where this was headed. And now on top of it all, he was bleeding and in pain. This royally sucked. If only the shelling would stop.

The shelling stopped. Rome looked up around him, surprised. The scene had changed, again: no bleeding mannequins. Still desert. But the mannequins were gone. It was a normal desert now. There was even a bird wheeling in the sky!

Rome looked down. His forearm was still bleeding. Weird. He had kind of expected that to go away. Whatever. It wasn't deep. It just hurt and was bleeding a lot. So Rome shrugged off his overshirt and tore it into strips to tie around his arm. Having stopped the bleeding, he flexed his hand, glad to find no serious damage had been done.

The sky rumbled overhead, and was suddenly darkening with ominous black clouds. A storm was coming.

((OOC: Although Rome doesn't know it, yet, I'm thinking he has some minor control over the dream now that Adara has "stepped out."))

Georgie was as shocked as Lenna but she knew that they shouldn’t react precipitous.

“Elenna stop it and think.”

Lenna stopped struggling against Georgie’s grip. She turned around and did the only thing she could think of right now.

“What the hell Rome, wake up! Your date is not as hot as you think. She is a friggin djinn.” Lenna yelled and she didn’t bother to wonder what the others think about her. She looked at Rome hoping that he would hear her and wake up, but nothing.

When the djinn is right he needs to wake up before we can kill her, but why isn’t he waking up? But it didn’t say this in any of the books.

“Please don’t hurt him. Just let him go and we leave. We won’t hurt you,” was Lenna begging.

Okay she didn’t mention that she meant with we just Georgie, Aly, herself and Rome, but the djinn didn’t know that.

Caleb arrived just in time to hear Elenna finish, stopping halfway through what would have been a rush on the Djinn that would've split her from neck to waist. He stalled for a second, then turned to Elenna and raised an eyebrow.

"If she what's, we what now?" Caleb blurted, raising a hand to still Lily and Danila, "The Hell is going on here?"

Adara smirked at the arrival of the newcomers. The sudden look of confused defeat on their faces almost made up for their interruption during dinner.

She eyed the tall man with the sword. The silver blade glinted in the light...at least where it wasn't coated in blood. Adara took no mind of it though. She moved gracefully, circling her away around him much like a cat toying with a dog before moving to inspect the others. She wove her way around all of them before returning to her cup of tea.

"So we find ourselves at a stalemate, yes? You cannot kill me, and I clearly cannot defeat all of you. So what are we to do?"

A small smile played at the edges of her lips as she took a sip of the now tepid liquid.

Lenna couldn’t think straight. She was trembling, for once she wanted to be the one in danger and Rome worrying about to find a way to safe her. She remembered too well how Raws insinuated that she couldn’t care less for Rome, that the both of them don’t need her.

Well where the hell are you Raws to proof you don’t need me? You are wrong Raws. I do care for Rome and even for you. Otherwise I can’t explain the feeling that my organs get mixed with a blender. I’m not gonna let Rome get killed, or at least not when I can get out of it alive. I so don’t wanna be hunted by Raws.

“What about a deal. You let Rome go and we leave the town with him, alive happy and kicking? And when you also leave the town in another direction we can’t find you again. We don’t harm you and you don’t harm us? We all get out of this alive.”